Recently a new residents group sprang into existence, its mission
statement being to ‘give support to a community who have suffered
ongoing abuse from the police, and to give a voice to local people.’ If
it sounds like a throwback to the ‘bad old days’ that is solely by dint
of manipulation of perceptions whereby nationalists have been cajoled
and beguiled into accepting that the good new days are now upon them.

The group is based in Armagh City’s Drumarg Estate and goes under the
name ‘The Association Against PSNI Harassment.’ It hopes to highlight
and challenge ‘heavy-handed PSNI tactics & intimidation of residents,
including children.’ It aims by peaceful means to oppose any future
assaults on the Drumarg community by the PSNI. One of its key demands is
that ‘the main nationalist parties withdraw from Armagh & District
policing board until this community receives a meaningful guarantee that
harassment of Armagh residents will end.’

According to the association, on the 12th of July a large and aggressive
force of paramilitary PSNI invaded Drumarg and began raiding the homes
of a number of local people. Charges laid against the force by the
association include:

* Local people were provoked by police who addressed residents as
“scum”.

* Two people tried to take photographs of police harassing residents
but were stopped and forced to delete the pictures.

* Police prevented the mother of a young child from entering her home
to get nappies for her child.

Not content with celebrating the 12th in the traditional police manner
the PSNI decided to stretch ‘festivities’ into the following day when
according to the new association:

* Approximately 30 officers charged through the estate and residents’
gardens

* They aggressively pushed mothers and children out of their way and
shoved a pregnant woman against a fence as they passed.

* A 14 year old youth had just left a nearby house and was violently
grabbed by the throat and dragged over a fence by police.

* Police continued to taunt residents with sectarian abuse such as
“fenian scum”.

Articulating the complaints listed by the association one resident
described to the Pensive Quill her take on the events of the day:

There was a high police presence ... and a general feeling of tension due
to the police aggression during the raids. Around lunchtime, landrovers
returned to the estate. Police jumped out of landrovers; approximately
30 officers charged through the estate and residents’ gardens adjacent
to the Athletic Grounds. They aggressively pushed mothers and children
out of their way and pushed a pregnant woman against a fence as they
passed. A 14 year old youth had just left a nearby house and was
aggressively grabbed by the throat and dragged over a fence by police.
At this point a few of the residents intervened. Within the next few
minutes another youth who had just walked out of his aunt’s house was
charged at by a number of officers and trailed into the back of a
landrover ... One policeman raised a baton and threatened a female. When
this happened a large group of residents stood together and faced the
police who then backed off slightly but continued to verbally abuse
people.

In spite of all this nothing was seized during the raids which would
lend justification to their having been launched in the first place. No
weapons or anything incriminating were discovered during the course of
two days of police raiding in the area. Local residents placed the PSNI
activity in the context of downright provocation, the backdrop to which
was the orange triumphalism which runs rampant mid July every year.

Keeping faith with its persistent assault on journalism, in Drumarg the
PSNI extended its hostility to citizen journalism. People trying to
photograph the police law breakers were physically thwarted by the PSNI.
‘Two people tried to take photographs of police harassing residents but
were stopped and forced to delete the pictures.’ The police in turn,
having denied residents the right to photograph their violent activity,
‘continually drove past openly taking photographs of residents.’

For the residents of Drumarg the good new days are a long time in
coming. As for the bad old days ‘they haven’t gone away, you know.’ The
resident cited above claimed that PSNI harassment of people living on
the estate had been ongoing over a number of years.

Many nationalists in Drumarg feel that they have been abandoned by
political representatives eager to ingratiate themselves with the PSNI.
Their decision to form an association committed to the protection of
those whose rights are being trampled under foot by a rampant British
police force is evidence that healthy political opposition exists in a
political ensemble which institutionally frowns on the concept of
opposition. The PSNI, confident that the peace process will impose a
regime of silence on those critical of its abusive behaviour is finding
that it is not all plain sailing. The residents of Drumarg with every
right to expect more show no intention of settling for less.

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